A great oak has fallen

Ghana has lost an illustrious son which she shared with the rest of humanity. The transition of Kofi Annan was abrupt; his compatriots and indeed the world at large neither reading nor hearing about his ailment prior to the transition. The ways of God are beyond us hence the surprise in us but it is destined for man to die at the Creator’s-destined time.

Death has laid its icy hands on him signaling his return to the Almighty maker, a spiritual journey which all mortals shall make sooner or later. For somebody who was consummate, his services and expertise touching lives across the world, his sudden death is enough to break hearts as it has already.

He lived his life well serving humanity through his association with the UN which organization he served his entire working life, of course, with distinction.

We shall mourn him and shower all the beautiful accolades on him yet we would soon forget about the lessons which death teaches us when it strikes as it always does.

Being ephemeral, we must live our lives well and emulate good people such as the departed Kofi Annan so that mankind would benefit from what God bestowed upon us in the form of talents.

We recognize how the departed Kofi Annan weathered some of the seemingly intractable world crisis. Although he was overwhelmed by some as in the case of the Rwandan genocide about which he could not do anything to reverse and the Iraq invasion of which he abhorred, he remained resilient as head of the UN not breaking down and achieved successes in other fronts.

We have learnt from him about how we do not have to raise our voices to have things done; his soft-spoken nature belying his strength. His interpersonal relationships with the staff of the UN were acknowledged by his former Speechwriter and Director of Communications of the world body. His remarks ‘he was an extraordinary nice and fun working with’ says it all about the fallen oak.

The challenges he faced at the time of the aforementioned world crisis – his impact on world peace – have been largely acknowledged throughout his two term tenure as head of the most difficult office on earth as he himself described the UN top assignment when he was handing over the baton of office to his successor.

For a man who put not only his country on the world map but Black Africa as a whole, all doff their hats to him in deference.